We have it pretty good still, but how long until US retailers give up like stores in other countries and just stop ordering new products? I've been reading reports about the 6 inch and TVC lines being sold for half price at a number of online retailers because the demand isn't near the stock level. Same goes for the basic line, especially multipacks, those almost always hit clearance. I recently watched a Hasbro interview on youtube and an employee mentioned a figure being produced in the tens of thousands - that makes me worried. So any given action figure is being produced at least over 20k each? I wonder how many active collectors are in the US and how many kids are still picking up action figures?

I did check but no temple guards. Mostly Bespin Hans, Ezra, Skiff Guard Landos, X-Wing Lukes. I think these were selling for $8, but the Rogue One figures were around $12. There weren’t any SA 3.75” figures or 6” to be found.

So I had an interesting experience today. I had to take my son in for x-rays on his foot (all turned out ok) and after that, I went into work late. I decided to swing by a Walmart for the heck of it.

I walked back to the toy section, and saw an unusual amount of employees back there. In the Star Wars aisle, there were lots of boxes of Hasbro product... and two Hasbro reps. They were stocking TVC!

I grabbed two TVC Range Troopers... and started talking to the two ladies. I asked them if they were Hasbro reps, they said they were... I told them I used to see reps in stores quite often, but it had been quite a few years since I had seen them.

They said they have been doing this for years... so I said that I was pleasantly surprised to find these new figures because distribution has been really bad the past few years and most people like me have had to resort to online purchases because it's so hard to find new figures anymore.

One of them said something along the lines of "We've been hearing this...." and "Disney has reps...." she said it in a way that sounded like she was critical of Disney, but didn't want to come out and openly bash them.

I said I had noticed things seem to be getting a bit better recently, and that maybe I had them to thank! They both laughed and said they're happy to take credit and things should continue to improve...

So then, I picked up a TVC TIE Fighter and said, "Well I hadn't planned on buying this thing, but since you stocked it, I guess I'll buy it!"

Things really have gone from hopeful to dreadful over the past month or so with TVC. Right when things started to look for the better with Waves 2 and 3 starting to show up, Walmart unleashed boatloads of Wave 1 TVC in November across the states. I have had one store in my area that had not been affected, until this weekend.

This is beyond absurd. It's time to clean house with the people at Hasbro that are picking which figures to make. There's no reason why Wave 1 should be a repack wave, especially of figures that just recently were put on clearance. All they are doing is keeping subsequent waves from hitting the market. I don't care what they say - the people that are making these decisions have no idea what they're doing.

There are a ton of wave 1 at WM now because, for the longest time (since the Solo merch launch), there was no official peg space allocated for TVC. So, many stores back stocked them. Finally, they updated their planograms to feature TVC but stores in the meantime started receiving wave 2 & 3 case assortments. That stuff got backstocked on top of old TVC wave 1 cases. Once that wave 2/3 product sold through, stores were left with putting out wave 1, hence Walmart now sharing in the wave 1 pegwarmers status with Target.

JaysonYakface Reporter/Reviewer/Photographer/Toyguide ManagerMember of the JediDefender Twin Cities Collector Club

YAK_Jayson wrote:There are a ton of wave 1 at WM now because, for the longest time (since the Solo march launch), there was no official peg space allocated for TVC. So, many stores back stocked them. Finally, they updated their planograms to feature TVC but stores in the meantime started receiving wave 2 & 3 case assortments. That stuff got backstocked on top of old TVC wave 1 cases. Once that wave 2/3 product sold through, stores were left with putting out wave 1, hence Walmart now sharing in the wave 1 pegwarmers status with Target.

So basically, if not for the Wave 1 holdup at Walmart from summer, then we'd probably not even seen Waves 2 or 3 at retail at all...

Target seems to be sitting on less Wave 1 stuff at this point.... so maybe some Wave 2 will show up there in the spring.

But it seems that TVC might not really get distributed at retail in 2019 like Hasbro intended. Unless they get reps out there to pull this stuff or Walmart does a $5 blowout price like they did with the 6" stuff earlier this year when Jyn and Cassian were taking up all their peg space.

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One thing that comes to mind is also Hasbro's inability to move quickly or make decisions (probably because of the red tape Disney/LFL has in place) to fix issues. The weird thing is, any problem that has arisen in Mattel's Jurassic World line has been fixed within a matter of weeks. There were packaging issues with the deluxe two packs. When the second wave arrived they were falling off the cardbacks. They stopped shipping them, fixed the packaging, and within three weeks or so, the items were being stocked again. The same goes for the large Rex with the tongue that stuck out. The spring mechanism allowed for the tongue to become dislodged and fall out. It didn't seem like any time at all passed by, and different rexes showed up on the shelves with that issue entirely fixed. Plus, the toys ship regularly, and the stock is being cycled rapidly because of high demand. Mattel is making pretty much exactly what collectors want, and it shows.

I have always thought the size of Hasbro's operation prevented them from making any quick changes or fixes in the line, but I'm beginning to think that's simply not true. Disney's LFL secrecy policies towards new content is also problematic. If you're making new content for the purpose of making toys, at least show your damn manufacturer what to make so they can produce toys for it. That is the single most significant problem, in my mind, with the Disney/Hasbro relationship.

Retail should do a BOGO sale on all TVC figures, and get those pegs cleared. We'll be stuck buying the 2019 figures online, then retail will give up once again, and the line will be dead. I don't see a way out of their wave 1 blunders, especially when they carry some figures forward.